


Journey's End

by Chipoko



Category: Iron Man (Movies), Marvel Cinematic Universe, The Avengers (Marvel Movies)
Genre: Avengers: Endgame (Movie) Spoilers, Flashbacks, Gen, Parent Tony Stark, Tony Stark Has A Heart, Tony Stark Has Self-Esteem Issues
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-08-04
Updated: 2019-08-04
Packaged: 2020-07-31 02:46:43
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Major Character Death
Chapters: 1
Words: 3,307
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/20107900
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Chipoko/pseuds/Chipoko
Summary: Tony Stark looks back on the major moments that led to a big decision.





	Journey's End

**Author's Note:**

> Hey everyone!
> 
> This is my first ever published fanfiction story. This story has existed for about three weeks now but due to vacation and the Archive's account waiting list I am only publishing this now. This story has been beta'd. I would like to give a big hug to my bèta'er for convincing me to put this out there in the first place.
> 
> There will be some more notes at the end of the story, for now: Enjoy!

Slowly the red and blue blur that was the form of Spider-Man came back into focus, as the old camera whirred in the background. Moving faster than the camera could properly register, he jumped down from the wall he was sitting on. As he jumped, he shot out two webs to bind a criminal by his hands and feet, moving towards another and kicking him in the chest.  
  
'Come on guys, didn't I stop you from robbing a bank only a few blocks away yesterday?'  
  
Tony knew what the kid was referring to. After all, he had shown up not long after because Peter was pretty busy laying exhausted on the sidewalk as the driver of the truck he had just prevented from knocking into a shopping mall was giving his statement to the police.  
  
'Not cool. Now, be nice and just give up the criminal life already. Clearly it doesn't suit you guys.'  
  
Suddenly, the picture cut out, but not before showing Spider-Man swinging to hit another guy and a brick flying out of nowhere towards the lens. The video ended, and Tony was met with YouTube's recommendations, yet again.  
  
Before he could stop himself, he had selected a new video, the first one in the list. It seemed like mere hours ago that the Avengers had come to him to pitch their idea for bringing them all back. Actually, they had only left thirty minutes ago.  
  
Could Tony really risk what he had to bring back what he, no, the world had lost? Five years had passed. Five years. If Peter had still been here, Tony would have seen him off to college.  
  
So, it was going to be one of those days.  
  
'Daddy, what'cha watching?'  
  
Morgan had snuck down the stairs and into his small lab without him noticing. Damn, he really had been absorbed by the video of Peter.  
  
'Nothing, sweetheart. Just a YouTube video.'  
  
Of course Morgan knew about Peter. There were pictures around the house of him, smiling at the camera. Tony had even acquired one that Ned, Peter's best friend, was in as well when he had cleared out May's apartment. Pepper had helped, that day. She had put Peter's things in the boxes, Tony being unable to look at the kid's belongings himself. He had taken May's room, where he had found this picture, laying under the bed, in an envelope.  
  
Clearing out May's apartment was something he felt he owed her. He had gotten her nephew into this mess and even if she wasn't here to know anymore... He owed her this. To do that for her.  
  
'Daddy! Daddy! Don't cry!'  
  
Tony hadn't realized he had started crying, thoughts too overwhelmed by memories.  
  
'Remember what I told you about Peter, your big brother?'  
  
Suddenly, Morgan quiets down. She knows what has happened to Peter, even though she has never even actually known him. Knowing that, Tony's heart aches for her, for him. The life that he never got to live and the life that she will live in the world as it is right now.  
  
'Yeah... Your stories are always really cool.'  
  
He may or may not have used some of his adventures and more domestic experiences with Peter as bedtime stories for Morgan. After Peter had rejected his offer to join the Avengers, he had asked the kid over to work in his workshop on a good and fateful day. Once a week had turned into twice a week. Twice a week had turned into nearly every day. Until...  
  
'Daddy? You want a juice pop? Juice pops always make everyone happy.'  
  
Looking down, smiling to himself and to her, he answers.  
  
'A juice pop? Yes, that would make me very, very happy. What flavour do you want?'  
  
In that moment, he realizes that he could never trade what he has for something that could, maybe, be.

* * *

  
Thanos smiles to himself, holding up his hand, gauntlet with all six stones firmly lodged on to it. Tony's heart drops, fear spreading like cold fire throughout his chest. This is it. This is the moment. They've lost again. All this effort, the whole journey, will be reduced to dust in a matter of seconds from now. The moments he shared with his dad, holding Peter in his arms, seeing Pepper help fight in her own suit, finally having put it on after so many, many years.  
  
Time is progressing ever so slowly as he realizes that he has to attack Thanos again. He cannot let this happen, he cannot let Thanos win again and this time destroy everything. Even Morgan.

* * *

  
'We got really lucky.', Pepper says softly, looking at him with wide, scared eyes. She already knows what the outcome of this conversation will be. So does Tony, but he doesn't want to admit it to himself. A chance, a one in a million chance. Only one way, Strange had said. Could this be...?  
  
'Yeah, I know.' He answers almost absentmindedly, as if he isn't there in the conversation, talking to his wife.  
  
'A lot of people didn't.' Pepper says. It hits him like a slap to the face. The guilt of losing Peter, not being able to protect him. Of seeing the testimonials on the television, still, after all these years, of everyone who has lost someone they love.  
  
'No, and I can't help everybody.'  
  
It is almost a reflex now. Years and years of therapy, talking to his wife and spending time with his daughter have taught him that what he has is more valuable than pondering about what could have been. There is no way to undo what has been done, no way to bring them back. Except, maybe, now there is.  
  
'Sort of seems like you can.'  
  
Not her too. Yeah, she definitely knew before she opened her mouth how this was going to go down. Clearly, she is only trying to convince him that he knows too.  
  
'I can put a pin in it right now, and stop.'  
  
He almost convinces himself by saying it. Saying that he can stop. Maybe for them, for Pepper and Morgan, he can stop.  
  
'Tony, trying to get you to stop, has been one of the few failures of my entire life.'  
  
Tony smiles at her, knowing she means it. She has been great at everything she has done, and he loves her for being so good to him. After everything they had been through... After Tony's obsession with the suits, the PTSD, the fight with Steve... They had found their way back to each other. And now Tony was about to leave her. Again. He chuckles involuntarily at the thought, the irony of it all.  
  
'Something tells me I should put it in a locked box and drop it to the bottom of the lake. Go to bed.'  
  
He means it. Really, part of him wants to ignore what he has found. To not tell the world about it. To keep what he has, to not put it at risk, like he put her at risk a hundred times before. But now it's different. Now he also has Morgan to think about, and he cannot possibly risk her. He nods, more to himself than to Pepper, knowing that he's right. And yet...  
  
'But would you be able to rest...?'  
  
Pepper leaves the question hanging in the open, but it knocks all the fight out of him. Knowing that there is a chance, even the slightest chance, that he can help bring billions of people back to their lives, will eat him alive. Knowing that there is a chance, just a chance, that he can bring Peter back is enough to tear him apart if he doesn't take it. Knowing this might be the one in fourteen-million-something chance that Strange had referred to for them to win...  
  
He lies awake the whole night, thinking.

* * *

  
The memory hits him like a train as he sees Strange hold up his finger. Only one way to save the universe. To save Peter, Pepper, Morgan. Only one way. He has to. He can't stop here. He got started on this journey to bring everyone back, and they have done that. Bruce snapped his fingers, sacrificing his arm to bring back billions of people. Only one way in fourteen-million-six-hundred-and-five scenarios that they can win. And only he has the power to make it happen.  
  
Part of Tony wishes that he had never started again. That he had left everything well enough alone. That he had never even thought to run the simulation that showed him that time-travel was a real possibility.  
  
Knowing that half of the population of the universe was returned to their proper place but all of the population is about to be destroyed by yet another snap is too much.  
  
Until he sees that finger. He knows. This is that one in a fourteen-million-six-hundred-and-five chance. This is it. And he has to do it.

* * *

  
'Mr. Stark? I don't feel so good.'  
  
His heart jumps to his throat. Not the kid, not his kid. Please, whatever powers may be, not his kid. Not Peter.  
  
'You're alright.'  
  
He wants to deny it, with every fibre of his being. He wants to trade everything he has for this not to be the truth. Give his life and turn to dust like the space-maniacs had just a few seconds before, just so Peter doesn't have to.  
  
'I don't... I don't know what's happening.'  
  
Peter stumbles forward and of course Tony is there to catch his solid form. Because this... This cannot be real. He cannot lose his kid.  
  
'I don't want to, I don't wanna go! Sir, please!'  
  
The broken sobs sound like terrified screams in Tony's ears, and he knows what is about to happen. He feels Peter's touch becoming lighter on his shoulders, wishing with all his might that he's wrong, that they're both wrong. He knows there is nothing he can do if this is real. Nothing he can do to prevent... Whatever this is.  
  
'Sir, I don't wanna go! I don't wanna go!'  
  
Tony's knees give out, and they drop to the floor. Peter Parker, his kid, drops laying on his back, his limbs disintegrating around him. The image is burned into the Tony's memory like no other. Not even the fire of the nuclear bomb hitting the Chitauri command centre as the stars gaze at him falling back through the wormhole comes close to this agony, this grief.  
  
'I'm sorry.'  
  
Tony has the wind knocked out to him, of course Peter would say that. Always self-deprecating, always taking the blame for things that he is not to blame for. He takes so much after Steve that it is almost painful. Peter has made Tony realize why Howard always loved Steve more than him.  
  
But now... Now there is so much Tony wants to say. He wants to tell Peter that he loves him, but the words are stuck. He opens his mouth to speak, but just then Peter's head becomes flaky. He watches, bewildered, as the dust turns grey and a gust of wind scatters it. He falls forward, no longer having someone to cling to.  
  
The Avengers took a stand against Thanos, and they lost. Tony lost.

* * *

  
With barely enough left of his suit to even form thrusters on his feet, he lunges at the gauntlet. Thor had failed. Steve had failed. Both had attempted to take the gauntlet from Thanos. Even glowing super lady had failed to take the gauntlet. He could not beat Thanos like they had tried to. The space giant would throw him off to the side like a doll without even noticing that he had hit something.  
  
He had to be smarter. For a few moments, he had to be Tony Stark, smartest man alive. He had to outwit Thanos, act like he had never done before against him. He had to outsmart the monster who now had in his hand the power to destroy and remake the universe.  
  
It was barely a second that he held Thanos's hand open to prevent him from snapping his fingers. Barely a second that he got to look the man in the eye. The man that had caused the destruction in New York. That he had lain awake in fear of for long nights. That he had had nightmares about, only to be woken up by a frantic Pepper.  
  
He felt his suit reforming around his arms, losing the strength to restrain the purple giant. Then, he was kicked in the stomach and thrown off to the side, a failure.  
  
Slowly, Thanos raised his hand, holding up the gauntlet as his trophy. Now, he had the unlimited power over the universe he had fought for, the stones handed to him by the very Avengers who were supposed to thwart his plan. He positioned his fingers. From the corner of his eye, Tony saw Steve getting back up, looking fearful, defeated. Thor raised his axe, ready to throw it at Thanos' neck. Ready to go for the head this time.  
  
Still, they would all be too late. Tony could see it in their posture. They no longer believed they could win. Thanos had the gauntlet, filled with the stones, and was a mere moment away from snapping. Nothing could stop him now.  
  
'I am Inevitable.'  
  
His words echoed over the battlefield like a whisper, carried by nothing but the wind. It was like thunder cracking in the silence, as even the fighting in the background stopped. Both Thanos' army and the assembled Avengers were watching in fear of what would happen next, knowing they would exist for barely a moment longer.  
  
Then, the snap. Metal hitting metal, scraping across the surface of the red gauntlet. Those who had heard the first snap looked confused, but still fearful. Others had ducked their head between their knees, were lying huddled on the ground or running away, as if that would save them from the all-powerful gauntlet.  
  
Yet, the wave of energy never came. The sky did not crack with lightning and Thanos' hand did not smoke from the power released from the gauntlet. Thanos turned his arm, to make the back of his hand and the top of the gauntlet face him, only to be confronted by six empty spaces.  
  
Breathing heavily, his eyes widened as he realized what had happened. Only then did the giant seem to internalize that this was not his own gauntlet, but Iron Man's. Only then did the realization dawn upon him that Iron Man was also Tony Stark, the man who had thwarted him all those years ago. The only man, out of billions, that was capable of stopping him.  
  
Feeling Thanos' eyes upon him, Tony lifted his head, the stones slowly moving to their respective places in the gauntlet that had just formed on his arm. He could feel the heat radiating from them as they moved. Then, all of them slid into their slots, making soft noises as if a drink was toasted.  
  
The sheer feeling of power flooded Tony's body. The gauntlet took the worst of it, but the energy released into his arm would be enough to make him unable to use it the same as he had before ever again. The thought that the pain in his arm he had felt all his life could be caused by the Infinity Stones left his mind as quickly as it came. His mind was flooded by the vision of the universe as he wanted it to be.  
  
He had the power in his hand to remake the universe as he wanted. He could remove all evil, look into the future and see the next universe-threatening monster, destroy it before it could ever come to be. And yet, he knew, that with this great power came great responsibility, and that he had only one job today. That all of the other things he could do with the gauntlet fell into the fourteen-million category.  
  
That this was their only chance to win.  
  
Full of determination, he looked at Thanos. The shock was clearly visible on the purple features, but Tony had no mercy left for this monster.  
  
'And I... Am... Iron Man.'  
  
The journey would end as it had begun. Tony against Thanos, even if he did not yet know it back then. Tony fighting for something real, something that was not just himself. Tony seeing that there were more important things to fight for than his own life, as he had first learned in Afghanistan.  
  
Tony saw now, what his father had always tried to teach him. That even if Steve wasn't perfect, that he was willing to make the sacrifice play. And now, Tony would make the ultimate sacrifice, saving everyone. His father would be proud.  
  
He snapped his fingers and the world went white.

* * *

  
Slowly regaining conciousness, he saw how the giant's army turned to dust before his eyes. How the realization dawned upon him that he had lost, and in that moment he looked pitiful, even if Tony did not have it in him to feel such a thing for the monster that had wiped out half of all life in the universe.  
  
He scrambled away from where Thanos had sat down, leaning against a piece of debree. A place to rest.  
  
He vaguely heard the thrusters of Rhodey's suit and the clunk of the Iron Patriot landing beside him, but he only had eyes for his friend, dressed in his military uniform, standing beside the entrance door of the plane. How he had wronged him then.  
  
'Mr Stark? Hey... Mr. Stark?'  
  
Far away, so very far away, the memory was punctured by a smile. Peter Parker's smile. The face that had turned to dust beneath him was smiling at the camera as he held his trophy, Tony's arm wrapped around him. Tony's chest filled with the warmth of pride and love for this young boy. Not just his protegé, but like his son.  
  
'We won...'  
  
As if under water, he heard the words being said out loud. He knew they had won.  
  
In his minds' eye, he saw Morgan, lying in her bed, smiling at him as he finished her juice pop, demanding a story. Today was a bad day, and Tony could not bring himself to tell her a story about her older brother, so he just whispered to her.  
  
'I love you.'  
  
'I love you 3000.'  
  
Then suddenly, Pepper was there, in her blue suit. 'Hey.'  
  
'Hey love.' He couldn't tell if he whispered it or said it out loud. It sounded too loud, like it would crack his skull to say it again.  
  
He smiled at her. Vaguely, he was aware of her hand on his arc reactor, asking Friday to read his vitals for her.  
  
A small moment of adrenaline almost got him to stand up as he saw a tear roll off her cheek, unable to hold down the fear that something was wrong, but he couldn't even move his legs.  
  
'Tony, look at me.'  
  
For one last time, he pulled himself together, looking her in the eye, but unable to summon the energy to smile.  
  
'We're gonna be okay.'  
  
The adrenaline left him as it dawned on him that she was right. Pepper was strong. She would take care of herself and Morgan. They would live their lives, but without him. He was so very, very tired.  
  
'You can rest now.'  
  
Part of the journey is the end. The only chance to save the universe had been taken and won. He had saved everything that he loved, everything that he had grown to care for over the years through all the hard lessons.  
  
Pepper was safe. Peter was safe. Morgan would know her brother.  
  
He released his breath, knowing he could go.

**Author's Note:**

> If you enjoyed this, please let me know. I am very open to having feedback, so if you are considering leaving a comment, please do so!
> 
> If you don't mind, I too have a duo of questions:  
\- At the point where Tony makes the decision to do what he needs to do, the verb tense switches. Is this okay? Did it annoy you? Was it confusing?  
\- I was considering adding Yinsen to the story as well, but I thought that would make it too long or complicated, as it is not the most memorable character from the original Iron Man. Would there have been room to add another flashback scene?


End file.
